Sponsorship Spending On College Athletics Totals $1.1 Billion In 2014/2015 Season

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College Athletics Spending: What’s Included

NCAA Corporate Champions/Corporate Partners

College Bowl Game title sponsors/cosponsors

College Football Playoff sponsors

Power Five conference/school sponsors

Non-Power Five conference/school sponsors

Sponsorship spending on college athletics totaled $1.1 billion in the 2014/2015 season, a 5.9 percent increase over the previous year, according to IEG research.

The increase significantly exceeds the projected 4.4 percent increase in 2015 sponsorship spending in the overall sports category, a factor largely driven by new and incremental activity around the College Football Playoff.

With 14 schools, the Southeastern Conference captured the largest share of sponsorship revenue (27 percent) among the Power Five conferences. The Big 12—the Power Five’s smallest conference (10 schools)—captured 13 percent of revenue, the smallest share among the five conferences.

SPONSORSHIP REVENUE AT THE POWER FIVE CONFERENCES

To no surprise, sports apparel and equipment is the most active category in college athletics. Led by Nike, Adidas and Under Armour, the category has more than 80 deals across Power Five conferences and schools, the NCAA, College Football Playoff and Bowl Games.

TOP SPONSORSHIP CATEGORIES IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS (BY SPEND) The sports apparel and equipment category spends 14.6 times more than the average category in college athletics.

There is at least one brand from the top five most active categories in college athletics. UPS is the only company not part of the top five categories.

Capital One is the only brand in the bank category while AT&T is the lone brand in the telco category. Every other top-five category has at least two brands in the top spenders list.

TOP SPONSORSHIP BRANDS IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS (BY SPEND)Nike spent 43.2 times more than the average college sports brand in the 2014/2015 season.

Notre Dame generated more sponsorship revenue than any other school during the 2014/2015 season. The sports powerhouse earned 3.2 times more revenue than the average Power Five school.

All told, the top ten schools have more than 60 BCS Game/College Football Playoff series appearances.

TOP TEN SCHOOLS BY SPONSORSHIP REVENUENotre Dame received 3.2 times more sponsorship revenue than the average Power Five school.

IEG Sponsorship Report

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